Recent Forum Topics › Forums › The Rams Huddle › Bruce to Rams fans: Show up –PD
- This topic has 3 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 10 years, 2 months ago by zn.
-
AuthorPosts
-
October 22, 2014 at 1:47 am #10157RamBillParticipant
Bruce to Rams fans: Show up
• By Jim ThomasIsaac Bruce is no stranger to relocation rumors. Some of the same things he’s hearing now about the possible move of the Rams to Los Angeles, he heard in reverse 20 years ago as a rookie wide receiver.
“I remember the day coach Rich Brooks stood up in front of the team (in Anaheim) and said, “It’s solidified. We’re moving. We’re going to St. Louis.”
Those words didn’t come until the spring of 1995. But there were rumors of the team’s departure throughout the ’94 season.
“The thing that really surprised me were the no-shows at the games on Sundays,” Bruce said, speaking of that ’94 season. “I think the biggest mistake that the Los Angeles area made was just saying c’est la vie, so to speak. ‘Go your way.’ Now they’ve been crying for a team all these years. I think St. Louis can learn a big lesson from them.”
And that’s where Bruce, who loved his time in St. Louis and still does charity work here for his foundation and owns property here, offered words of advice for Rams fans in the Gateway City.
“The biggest way to show a team that you love ’em is to show,” Bruce said. “Show up. Even in the worst of times. Show up. Say, ‘We need a team.’ I mean, you don’t want to be a city that’s been marked with losing two franchises.
“And definitely with a team that you embraced when we first came here in 1995. It’s only been 20 years. Twenty years is a short time. So get behind this team and show the upper brass how much you love this team.”
The point Bruce was making is that empty seats and no-shows can make relocating a self-fulfilling prophecy. Fans get upset over the possibility of moving, not to mention the team’s poor showing, and start staying away from the games.
Detractors seize on this as a sign of poor fan support, and use it as a reason the team should be allowed to move. Beginning with the Monday night game at the Edward Jones Dome against San Francisco, several out-of-town football analysts have pointed out the thousands of empty seats in the Dome.
The Rams have averaged 57,000 tickets distributed per game in the 66,000-seat Dome this season. Since the team’s 15-65 freefall from 2007 through 2011 — the worst five-year stretch for any team in league history — the Rams have had trouble getting that last 5,000 to 10,000 fans back in the building.
Still, those attendance numbers hold up well compared to the last few years of the Rams in Southern California. Playing in the nation’s second-largest market, the Los Angeles Rams had 16 crowds of fewer than 50,000 in their last 24 games in Anaheim, from 1992-94. In eight of those 16 games, attendance was less than 40,000 — this for a franchise that had played in the NFC championship game as recently as 1989.
The last thing Bruce wants is to see the Rams leave St. Louis for LA, particularly if empty seats give league owners a reason to vote in favor of the move.
“It would be really sad,” Bruce said. “I believe we can get it done. We can get it back together and grow what we have. Make it stronger than what it was.”
Bruce was among nearly 50 Rams players in town last week for the Super Bowl XXXIV reunion. Several mainstays of that 1999 team were asked by the Post-Dispatch for their thoughts on the possibility of the franchise leaving.
Bruce’s running mate at wide receiver, Torry Holt, called the LA rumors “heartbreaking.”
“Because I know this city loves football,” he said. “We saw it first-hand. There’s a lot of talk about this being a baseball town. And it is, and that’s understandable.”
But not so much from 1999-2004, a six-season period in which the Rams made the playoffs five times, won three NFC West titles, played in two Super Bowls and won one Lombardi Trophy.
“From ’99 to 2004, they loved St. Louis Rams football,” Holt said. “It was a football town. We’ve just gotta get back to winning. Get back to winning.”
The Rams haven’t had a playoff appearance since 2004, when they squeaked into a wild-card berth with an 8-8 record. They haven’t had a winning season since 2003. Only Oakland has a longer current futility streak, having gone since 2002 without a winning record.
“Hopefully they’ll keep the team here,” Holt said. “But I understand business. LA’s a large market.”
Left tackle Orlando Pace, who has settled in St. Louis in retirement, said St. Louis is home in spirit for all of the Greatest Show on Turf Rams.
“This is where we had that success,” Pace said. “This is where everything happened. So if the team left, it would be almost like the (football) Cardinals.
Meaning the players from the St. Louis Cardinals after Bill Bidwill moved the team to the Phoenix area in 1988.
“They don’t feel like they have a home,” Pace said. “We’d feel the same way. So hopefully they stay in St. Louis, where we won a championship.”
Quarterback Kurt Warner says he can see how LA would be “a natural fit” if the Rams moved there because of the team’s history and tradition in Southern California. He remembers seeing several thousand Rams fans in the stands sporting “Los Angeles Rams” gear when the Greatest Show teams played in San Francisco.
“But I also understand what a great sports town St. Louis is,” he said. “And how this town deserves a team. They deserve a winning team. And how special it was to be able to bring that winner here.
“So my hope and my selfishness is that the Rams are always in St. Louis, because that’s the only way I know the Rams. And it would be weird to be a part of a team that was somewhere else.”
October 22, 2014 at 3:18 pm #10179joemadParticipant“I remember the day coach Rich Brooks stood up in front of the team (in Anaheim) and said, “It’s solidified. We’re moving. We’re going to St. Louis.”
I thought Chuck Knox was coach when the move from LA to STL was “solidified”, not Richie Rich.
BTW, My brother and I would try to attend 1 or 2 games per season in Anaheim, we’d fly down from San Jose or sometimes, my old college roomates or friends would drive down for a game……….The last RAMS game I attended in Anaheim was 1994 opening day… Cardinals vs RAMS game ……RAMS won ugly that day……. we stayed and the Emerald Hotel in Anaheim and the night before the game we rode an elevator with Jerome Bettis, my brother asked him about the potential move… Jerome wanted to stay in LA, he also had high regard for coach Knox……
NFL Owners OK Rams’ Move to St. Louis
April 13, 1995|T.J. SIMERS | TIMES STAFF WRITER
IRVING, Tex. — The Los Angeles Rams are history, officially gone from Anaheim to St. Louis after winning the National Football League’s blessing Wednesday with a $46-million payment.In addition to a $29-million relocation fee, the Rams agreed to pay $17 million from the proceeds of personal seat licenses, which are one-time fees for rights to buy season tickets.
Twenty-three of the 30 league owners must approve a franchise move, and they voted 22 to 6 in favor Wednesday, with the Los Angeles Raiders abstaining. Rams owner Georgia Frontiere, who had been asked to remain outside during the special meeting, was then called on to cast the deciding vote.
“I thought about it for a few minutes,” she joked.
“My grandmother had a saying: ‘Go little where wanted, go not at all where little wanted.’ And that’s about the way it’s been (in Anaheim). I think they will be better off too,” Frontiere said.
After the vote on the Rams, the Raiders’ stadium concerns were discussed for an hour. Discussions included financial assistance for the construction of a new playing facility, and a guarantee that it would be the site of at least two Super Bowls. The league is expected to agree to partly fund the proposed stadium at Hollywood Park, but a vote will not be taken until the league’s May meetings in Jacksonville, Fla.
“We spent a lot of time talking about the Raiders,” Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said. “I can’t imagine L.A. without a football team, but who would have thought two years ago the Rams would be out of L.A.?”
League owners also approved the bid of Stan Kroenke, a Columbia, Mo., businessman, to purchase 30% of the Rams from Frontiere.
The Rams will play four games in Busch Stadium in St. Louis and finish the 1995 regular season in a $260-million domed stadium under construction.
Before they make their first appearance in St. Louis, the Rams will play the Raiders in an exhibition game, presumably in Southern California, and possibly at Anaheim Stadium.
The Rams’ move, the brainchild of Rams President John Shaw, ends a 50-year relationship with Southern California, and again gives St. Louis, which lost the Cardinals to Phoenix in 1988, pro football.
“I’m just relieved that it’s finished,” Shaw said. “I’m happy for the fans of St. Louis and I hope that fans in Los Angeles will get another NFC team.”
League Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said placing another National Football Conference team in the Los Angeles market is a high priority.
“We hope to be able to put together a plan to have a second team in L.A.,” he said. “It could be expansion or it could be the relocation of an existing franchise.”
Tagliabue backed away from a plan calling for the Rams to establish a stadium trust fund for the renovation or construction of a stadium in Southern California.
“The (Finance) Committee felt that was a judgment that would be premature to make,” he said. “Many clubs felt the best use (of the $29-million relocation fee from the Rams) was for NFL charities.”
Shaw said he believes the league will make an attempt to place another NFC team in the Los Angeles area at the conclusion of the league’s television contract after the 1997 season.
“I think it’s in the best interests of the league to have teams playing in Los Angeles, but playing in modern facilities,” Shaw said.
The Rams exercised an escape clause in their Anaheim Stadium lease to begin the pursuit of a state-of-the-art football facility that would provide additional opportunities for revenue, such as premium seating and luxury boxes.
Shaw struck a lucrative deal with St. Louis that hinged on the sale of more than $70 million in personal seat licenses. He contended that the proceeds from those seats belonged to the Rams. The league said member clubs were entitled to 33% of that money.
The NFL Finance Committee met late into the night Tuesday and then came to Shaw demanding the $46 million. The NFL wanted the Rams to pay the league $20 million now and the remainder over 15 years.
“I advised Georgia and Stan not to accept the NFL’s offer,” Shaw said. “I thought it had become too pricey, but it’s their team and it was their decision to make.”
Frontiere and Kroenke, aware that the NFL’s offer has built-in provisos that could drive up the Rams’ obligation to $71.5 million, agreed to settle.
Although it appeared that Frontiere had to buy her way to St. Louis, Tagliabue strongly disagreed.
“It did not come down to a money deal with the Rams,” Tagliabue said. “That is a completely erroneous implication and had very little to do with it. There will be no money paid to the other member clubs of the league. There is a payment called for to the league which may go to NFL charities, or may go to a stadium trust fund. But (money) was the least of our concerns.”
October 23, 2014 at 7:03 am #10236znhaterBlockedKnox got fired and Brooks had just been hired when it was announced they would move.
October 23, 2014 at 9:09 am #10239znModeratorKnox got fired and Brooks had just been hired when it was announced they would move.
Timing: Knox was fired in January. Brooks was hired in February. Fwiw. I don’t know if that clears anything up.
-
AuthorPosts
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.